Connor McCaffery Baseball Prospect

HawkGold said:
I have no idea how good he is. I do know that he was older for his HS class which is a huge advantage. However, his bio is telling. It's about name recognition at this point and his height/length. There is no way he runs the bases fast enough in today's athletic world. There are a lot of guys with talent including apparently Conner. He's not going pro. If he were 19 this summer it would be different.

Hawk Item -- Also a member of the University of Iowa men's basketball program, playing for his father, Fran McCaffery.

2018 -- Redshirted... did not see any game action.
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I disagree with your idea about "fast enough" for baseball. My brother was a pretty good catcher in HS - made the all SE Iowa team and honorable mention all state. He was the ONLY guy to pick off a player from Muscatine in that player's HS career (that player led the state two years in a row in stolen bases). He was also the ONLY guy to pick off a player from Durant in his career. He was one of the slowest players on the team in a 50 yd dash, but would hustle down the line and pick up badly thrown balls missed by the first baseman and throw runners out at second. When he was on first, only one other player on the team could make the first to third corner faster. But in a flat out "sprint" it was always "PICK UP THE PLOW!!!".

Just as in football, someone sprinting in sweats is different than running in full gear.
 
Northside Hawk said:
And where Dave Winfield played? And Barry Larkin? And Steve Garvey? And Joe Girardi? And Kirk Gibson? And Jim Sundberg? And Mike Boddicker?
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How about Alex GOrdon, Todd Frazier, Glen Perkins, Tony Watson, David DeJesus, Nick Swisher, Brett Cecil, Joba Chamberlain, J.A. Happ or Tanner Roark. They are all in MLB now and played in the Big 10.
 
Knight78 said:
I disagree with your idea about "fast enough" for baseball. My brother was a pretty good catcher in HS - made the all SE Iowa team and honorable mention all state. He was the ONLY guy to pick off a player from Muscatine in that player's HS career (that player led the state two years in a row in stolen bases). He was also the ONLY guy to pick off a player from Durant in his career. He was one of the slowest players on the team in a 50 yd dash, but would hustle down the line and pick up badly thrown balls missed by the first baseman and throw runners out at second. When he was on first, only one other player on the team could make the first to third corner faster. But in a flat out "sprint" it was always "PICK UP THE PLOW!!!".

Just as in football, someone sprinting in sweats is different than running in full gear.
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Yes, but the speed is timed. We are talking pro's not Iowa all stars. The speed is something that has changed in recent years due to matrix analysis. Even to be considered for D1 at the mid level in the south the speed is surprisingly fast and he just isn't that fast. He may or may not make A Ball, which i doubt without actually seeing him play for Iowa. Catchers also need a fast release and most HS coaches don't coach the snap very well.

I enjoy Iowa baseball,so I hope he's good. I suspect his baseball skills are a lot like his basketball. Pretty good at certain aspects and weak at others bolstered by name, tallness, and so on such as being older. Being a year older is such a huge advantage. He also has a healthy self esteem due to his parents and privilege and that will get him further than a kid from a "normal" family.
 
HawkGold said:
Yes, but the speed is timed. We are talking pro's not Iowa all stars. The speed is something that has changed in recent years due to matrix analysis. Even to be considered for D1 at the mid level in the south the speed is surprisingly fast and he just isn't that fast. He may or may not make A Ball, which i doubt without actually seeing him play for Iowa. Catchers also need a fast release and most HS coaches don't coach the snap very well.

I enjoy Iowa baseball,so I hope he's good. I suspect his baseball skills are a lot like his basketball. Pretty good at certain aspects and weak at others bolstered by name, tallness, and so on such as being older. Being a year older is such a huge advantage. He also has a healthy self esteem due to his parents and privilege and that will get him further than a kid from a "normal" family.
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Baseball is a cruel sport that will weed out the weak. No matter how athletic or entitled you are, you can't be a "specialist". You have to hit the pitching. You have to field and throw the ball.

If he has the chops to be a major league prospect he will probably get around 1,000 minor league at bats. Those pitchers will help him make his mind up as to how good he can be. As for his speed, baseball hasn't been less speed oriented at any time since the 1950's. The steal, the hit and run, an even hitting behind the runner are all skills that are on life support as teams try get as many boppers as possible in the lineup and get them uppercutting. And it's not just at the college or pro level. My eighth grader, who won't even play baseball in high school because of track and field, played for an academy team last spring. The first indoor practice the coach was teaching the kids launch angle. I spent all subsequent practices finding a place to go jogging. When AAU basketball started in April he started missing too many baseball tournaments to justify being on the team. The baseball coach nicely refunded us a pro rated share of our team fees. My son's swing wasn't so lucky. It was July before he finally went back to his short, level, compact swing.
 
Northside Hawk said:
And where Dave Winfield played? And Barry Larkin? And Steve Garvey? And Joe Girardi? And Kirk Gibson? And Jim Sundberg? And Mike Boddicker?
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Knight78 said:
How about Alex GOrdon, Todd Frazier, Glen Perkins, Tony Watson, David DeJesus, Nick Swisher, Brett Cecil, Joba Chamberlain, J.A. Happ or Tanner Roark. They are all in MLB now and played in the Big 10.
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I'm going to ask you both the same thing I asked smhawk, are you both disagreeing with me? I wasn't saying MLB talent never comes from the Big Ten, I'm saying most of the MLB talent is in the south. The Big Ten isn't typically considered to be a top 5 conference in baseball. Recruiting in the cold weather states for baseball sucks, especially since the college season starts in February.
 
ssckelley said:
I'm going to ask you both the same thing I asked smhawk, are you both disagreeing with me? I wasn't saying MLB talent never comes from the Big Ten, I'm saying most of the MLB talent is in the south. The Big Ten isn't typically considered to be a top 5 conference in baseball. Recruiting in the cold weather states for baseball sucks, especially since the college season starts in February.
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No, your point stands. And you can add California and Arizona to the mix, too. Obviously, parts of the country where you can play outdoors year round as a six or seven year old kid, when interest in a sport begins, are going to have a huge advantage in being talent hotbeds. And those advantages usually show up in the college world series, which is dominated by teams from the south and the west coast.

For college baseball to be dominated by Midwestern teams would be like the hockey frozen four dominated by SEC teams. Ain't gonna happen. My list of B1G players that DID make the major leagues was almost light hearted and tongue in cheek but sarcasm goes out the window when the air temperature is -15 degrees and the wind is blowing and the dog can't get back in the house because the patio door has frozen up and he has to come in through the garage.:)
 
Northside Hawk said:
Baseball is a cruel sport that will weed out the weak. No matter how athletic or entitled you are, you can't be a "specialist". You have to hit the pitching. You have to field and throw the ball.

If he has the chops to be a major league prospect he will probably get around 1,000 minor league at bats. Those pitchers will help him make his mind up as to how good he can be. As for his speed, baseball hasn't been less speed oriented at any time since the 1950's. The steal, the hit and run, an even hitting behind the runner are all skills that are on life support as teams try get as many boppers as possible in the lineup and get them uppercutting. And it's not just at the college or pro level. My eighth grader, who won't even play baseball in high school because of track and field, played for an academy team last spring. The first indoor practice the coach was teaching the kids launch angle. I spent all subsequent practices finding a place to go jogging. When AAU basketball started in April he started missing too many baseball tournaments to justify being on the team. The baseball coach nicely refunded us a pro rated share of our team fees. My son's swing wasn't so lucky. It was July before he finally went back to his short, level, compact swing.
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Baseball has changed toward speed. It really has. it is not the same game which is why free agents have had such problems.
 
HawkGold said:
Baseball has changed toward speed. It really has. it is not the same game which is why free agents have had such problems.
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Baseball is a cyclical game. Speed will come back, even at the major league level. The problem is that managers are changing. Whitey Herzog types, who learned the game by beating around the minors for six years then hanging onto major league playing careers for another six, don't exist anymore. Joe Maddon is one of the last of that era. More and more major league managers are becoming figureheads, who's strings are being pulled by Ivy league front office types who might as well by actuaries for all the time they spend crunching numbers.

Free agents are having problems because they demand too many years and too much money on the back ends of contracts. Owners would have no problem shelling out the money if it was for fewer years. But they don't want to pay for past performance, like the Angels are for Albert Pujols. Egotistical agents like Scott Boras, who think they run the game (and are proven right every time they outsmart an owner) sometimes burn their clients and end up settling for fewer years and less money than the former club originally offered (Jake Arrietta).
 
Sorry this is devolving into a baseball thread. It is supposed to drop to -30 degrees tonight and another day of school closings are coming across my phone as I type and I need to think warmer thoughts somehow.:D
 
HawkGold said:
This morning was brutal. Not so bad right now. Saw where I U of IA student is deceased and might be due to the cold.

https://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Univ-of-Iowa-student-found-dead-weather-may-have-505094011.html
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Sad to hear. Classes at least were cancelled, an extreme move for a big state state university. At wind chills of -55 frostbite and hypothermia can set in within minutes.

This thread has now devolved from baseball to weather. But for good reason. Very few of us have seen a day like this. Here in Wisconsin the temperature and wind chill are both colder than the legendary Green Bay Packers "Ice Bowl" game in 1967.
 
Northside Hawk said:
Sad to hear. Classes at least were cancelled, an extreme move for a big state state university. At wind chills of -55 frostbite and hypothermia can set in within minutes.

This thread has now devolved from baseball to weather. But for good reason. Very few of us have seen a day like this. Here in Wisconsin the temperature and wind chill are both colder than the legendary Green Bay Packers "Ice Bowl" game in 1967.
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We held steady at -53 on windchill this morning. Oh the days of feeding the hogs with 5 gallon buckets back in the late 70s. Chopped ice in the creek for the horse too. Ready for winter to be done.

Remember Zabel broadcasting it was -25 in IC back then for a game against maybe IU?
 
HawkGold said:
We held steady at -53 on windchill this morning. Oh the days of feeding the hogs with 5 gallon buckets back in the late 70s. Chopped ice in the creek for the horse too. Ready for winter to be done.

Remember Zabel broadcasting it was -25 in IC back then for a game against maybe IU?
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That could have been 1979 when the Indiana game was pushed back to Sunday and I-80 was closed from Des Moines to Chicago.

Bobby Knight was being pursued by CBS in 1981 for the possibility of retiring from coaching and being their lead basketball analyst. The timing was right for several reasons.
  • Knight had just won his second national championship
  • CBS had just brought postseason broadcasting rights from NBC and wanted a big name to hitch its buggy to.
  • Knight's first wife was all for it
  • Knight, in a public comment about his discussions with CBS, famously exclaimed "I don't know how many times I want to go back to Iowa City in January."
Senior to be Landon Turner had the car accident in the summer of 1981 that ended his career. Knight spent the next several months raising funds to pay his hospital bills and to make his apartment handicapped accessible, putting an end to all CBS rumors of Knight taking that job.
 
Northside Hawk said:
That could have been 1979 when the Indiana game was pushed back to Sunday and I-80 was closed from Des Moines to Chicago.

Bobby Knight was being pursued by CBS in 1981 for the possibility of retiring from coaching and being their lead basketball analyst. The timing was right for several reasons.
  • Knight had just won his second national championship
  • CBS had just brought postseason broadcasting rights from NBC and wanted a big name to hitch its buggy to.
  • Knight's first wife was all for it
  • Knight, in a public comment about his discussions with CBS, famously exclaimed "I don't know how many times I want to go back to Iowa City in January."
Senior to be Landon Turner had the car accident in the summer of 1981 that ended his career. Knight spent the next several months raising funds to pay his hospital bills and to make his apartment handicapped accessible, putting an end to all CBS rumors of Knight taking that job.
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I think you are right about 79. The year before? I was at the IA IL game that Iowa upset the Illni. One of their players later became my "assistant coach" when he was a big asst. I never told him I heckled him. I was in the bleachers behind the basket.
 
I would rather Connor just play baseball. He isn't a bad basketball player, but it seems a little pointless if he isn't ready to give 100%. Baseball probably has more potential for him unless he wants to play basketball overseas.
 
To me speed is great if you use it. I mean not many teams are emphasizing stealing bases or station to station play anymore. Besides that it's nice to have fast outfielders for sure. MLB is all about the long ball pretty much. How often does anyone bunt for a base hit? How many infield hits are there compared to past yrs I'd be curious about that as well.
 
Hawkfnntn said:
To me speed is great if you use it. I mean not many teams are emphasizing stealing bases or station to station play anymore. Besides that it's nice to have fast outfielders for sure. MLB is all about the long ball pretty much. How often does anyone bunt for a base hit? How many infield hits are there compared to past yrs I'd be curious about that as well.
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Baseball has not trended toward speed. You're right. It's only worth it if you use it. MLB has trended to be very judicious in using speed.

It's about OPS% & WAR
 
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